No Ordinary Evening in Peru
17 August 2007
Celia Aldana, Oxfam's Communications Officer in Lima, describes the first hours of the earthquake there, and the unfolding tragedy in Pisco.
It seemed an ordinary Wednesday in Lima. I left the office as early as I could, I just wanted to go to bed and rest because I had a cold and it was becoming more and more annoying. But before I needed to do some shopping: I teach classes at the university at 7 am and I needed to get some markers and papers to work with the students on Thursday morning. So I arrived at a small shop two blocks away from my house, and was saying, "Good evening, do you ha...?" when the shopkeeper interrupted me: "Earthquake, madame, earthquake!"
I understood, a bit disappointed, that it would be impossible to get the materials I needed. The strange thing was that I didn't feel anything, no noise, no movement until the clerk told me. Then I went out and watched, stupidly, the fence of a house moving from one side to the other...it was true: it was an earthquake. People were gathering out in the streets, carrying their babies, some of them shouting. The comments I heard echoed my thoughts: the earthquake seemed to go on an extraordinarily long time. “Has it stopped?” people were asking. "When will this finish? This is not possible!" I have lived through three earthquakes, although I only remember two, and this one seemed to go on forever.
Then something strange happened: the sky turned completely white, and the blackout started.
Terrible Hours
The two following hours were horrible. My house was dark, and the telephones were not working. I started dialing, dialing, and dialing, but nothing. It is hard not to feel desperate. Finally, after a hundred attempts, I talked to my mom: she, my sister, and three of my nephews were fine. But we didn't know anything about my other sister, my dad, and my brother-in-law. We kept on dialing until we found them.
The particular problem with my family is that they live in a district called La Punta. It is an old resort, a peninsula surrounded by the sea, four blocks wide. It is paradise, but vulnerable to tsunamis and other disasters. So, another discussion started: should they evacuate, or shouldn’t they? First the local authorities told them to leave the area, and then the same authorities told them it was not necessary. First there was a tsunami alert, and then they said there was not a tsunami alert.
I begged them, please leave the house and come to stay in mine, but they said it was not necessary. Then my friends called: "Is your family already out of La Punta? Take them out!" The first to leave was my mother, who declared that I was alone at home and she was coming to my house to be with me. Then my sister and her children went to her mother-in-law's house, after they heard the president recommend people move away fro the shore. But my stubborn father and my even more stubborn brother in law stayed at home.
Waiting for my mother was another torture, it took her so long to get to my house. The traffic was crazy. But she finally came, saying the bus and combi drivers were heroes: people with families that were still providing a service necessary for everybody. When I finally saw her, I just hugged her and cried, really hard.
"Pisco Was Destroyed"
But Lima had suffered very little compared to Pisco. When we finally got the electricity back, a couple of hours after the earthquake, we heard the news of that area, but still didn’t have a clear idea of how affected it was. My boyfriend Luis is from Pisco and he was very worried because he couldn't get in touch with his family. I told him to calm down and that, surely, everything was fine. He only said "I don't think so."
He was right: Pisco was destroyed. When he finally could talk to his relatives he found out that four of them had died: his younger sister, who was only 25 years old, died with her baby; a niece, who was 16, and a cousin. He has not heard any news from some of his friends, who are still missing. He is very worried about his relatives and friends in the area, because they have neither food nor water, and he doesn't know how to help them.
Yesterday and today have been crazy days at work. We have spent them gathering information from different sources, talking to the members of our team who are in the area, and answering questions from the media. It is an overwhelming feeling, to see what the people in the area are living and suffering.
